Fragmented white-ground, red-figure lekythos

Description:

Attic Greek, c. 470 – 425 B.C.E.

Fine white-ground, red-figure lekythos depicting a funerary rite relating to the deceased person for whose grave it was made. Two simply-drawn, solemn figures are depicted as part of the main scene atop the white slip: a young male figure dressed in a himation, a young female bearing a basket of offerings, and a comparative stele between the two. Three palmette patterns adorn the top of the body, the rim decorated with a meander patten of which only sections visibly survive. The piece exists in eight major sections: the body, base, mouth, handle, neck, two small fragments probably from the base, and a semi-circular chunk from the bottom of the body, dislodged recently. If whole, the piece would be nearly 27 cm. in height. The nature of the artwork points to the vase either having been decorated by the “Achilles Painter” (fl. c. 470 – 430 / 425), or the “Bird Group” (fl. c. 435 – 425 B.C.E.), either candidate providing a reasonable approximation of its date. There appear to have been at least two restorations: one, from an entirely fragmentary condition, proves to be of exceptional quality; the other appears to be far more haphazard, and having been performed with highly inexpensive white adhesive along with additions in pen ink to the outline of the male figure.

In 2013, the lekythos was subjected to analysis via gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) via the Archaeochemistry Research in the Eastern Mediterranean (ARCHEM) project and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with the assistance of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the organic residue analysis revealing traces of oleic acid, consistent with an original content of olive oil, the SEM processing yielding evidence in favor of authenticity as well as an Attic Greek origin based on comparisons between a thin section taken from a fragment and genuine Attic red clay. The analysis is documented in the Master’s Thesis by graduate student Lana Georgiou (’14), “Intimate Death: The Brandeis Fifth-Century Athenian Lekythos’ Evolution of Form, Ritual Practices and Use.”